// NATURE NEWS — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
Becoming real
Dadui Yao is a comparative literature professor at Hainan University, a Harvard visiting scholar and a recently selected Humboldt Fellow with an interest in the intersection of science and philosophy.
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After they had enclosed the humans, they did not make the wall very high.
“High walls are for those who want to escape,” the old man said. “We don’t.”
The child sat on the threshold and stared at the pale line in the distance. Beyond the wall, the light never went out. It looked like another sky, one that had forgotten how to sleep.
“No people coughing through winter. No clocks losing time. No old men who forget names,” the old man said. “And no peaches that will rot by tomorrow.”
The old man did not answer. He broke the peach in his hands. Juice ran through his fingers, and the air filled at once with sweetness. At the edges, the flesh had already begun to brown, as though dusk had touched it.
“Why do things smell better when they’re about to go bad?”
That was when the figure appeared. It came monthly to the village entrance. It had the shape and voice of a person, but was simply too complete — symmetrical, unmarred and terrifyingly still.
The child made a face. “You always get those two words mixed up.”